Kit Progress, Stall Warning & Tailcone Attach

Kit Progress

Taking a non-linear approach on continuing the build I worked on the wings and fuselage concurrently.  Also given the list created from the kit inspections I jumped around quite a bit resolving loose ends on steps that either weren't done or left up to the builder to complete.  It's a bit overwhelming having so many things to work on so I just started at the top of my list with the wings and worked through the items until getting to Section 19, likewise I started on the fuselage list and worked through to Section 25.  On items I wasn't ready to complete, I just made a note and moved on, a good example is pro-sealing the fuel senders on the tank, I'm going to wait for my Stainless Steel Heater Bypass Valve so I don't have to make multiple batches of the stuff.

During the progress if I had questions I would email Vans technical support and move on, when they would reply I would jump back to the step.  One such question is how do you remove the forward floor pans with the gear weldments.  Originally Vans had emailed me that they could be removed and should be removed to inspect underneath.  So I sent a picture showing how the weldment stops removal of the pan, they revised their previous statement and said to try and clean under it and move forward.  So that's what I did, painstakingly hand-setting a few hundred cherry rivets.  I'm going to borrow a pneumatic cherry rivet gun for the remaining floor pans when the time comes.

Forward Floor Pans

Something I previously didn't mention is I made some roller assemblies for the fuselage using some of the crate material, left over carpet and wheels.  The fuselage gets shipped bolted into the crate, once you unscrew the outside holders you're left with large wood inserts into the spars. I just made a box to attached it to the existing holders and put some wheels on them.  This screwed into the existing spar piece allows it to be moved around fairly easily.  I then made two platforms, one for the front and one for the back which will keep the piece from rocking back and forth.

Fuselage Wheel

Attached to Fuselage

Tapped Wings

Stall Warning System

Section 19

 I plan on installing an angle of attack system on the plane so in theory I could forgo this section if you want.  But you have all the parts and I'm not comfortable giving up on the basic stall warning system yet.  Plus you get all the parts anyways so why not give it a go and install it!

Nothing is more nerve racking than cutting into your wing skin!  Even with a template and some solid instructions I felt a bit ill as I dremeled my way into the side.  The end result I wasn't happy with so used some of my previously made sanding tools to square it up a bit.  Still not CNC quality but it's covered with a plate and on the bottom of the wing so I'll live.

Made another paint booth!  Not really, I'm just using my crate graveyard as a paint booth for now.  As much as I like AKZO since I don't want to spend 30 mins prepping and 30 mins cleaning for every little part I'm still going to use self etching on the remaining parts.  If they're going to be somewhat visible I'll top coat, otherwise will leave them just primed.

Access plate completed

Reminded me of Legos

The rest of section 19 involves wiring up the alarm which will wait until I wire the plane, so for now this section is complete.

The stall tab is hanging out on the bottom left.

Tailcone Attachment

Section 20

This step is pretty exciting because you finally get to turn your empennage and fuselage kit into a single assembly. I didn't take any pictures of the progress but it's fairly straight forward and consists of cleco'ing together, match/final drilling... then separating and deburring and finally dimpling.

One note on the quickbuild is my mid-fuse top longerons didn't have the 4 #30 holes in the end to match drill into the tailcone longerons.  They did send me the template used previously in the plans but I had to cut off the applicable 4 hole section and line it up with the already installed longerons and make the hole.  Given my history of messing up a longeron I'm ultra sensitive to drilling these things so was a bit nervous doing this step.  The end result of consistent with the plans and was happy to move on.

After all the prep work you get to then reattach the tailcone and mid-fuse and secure with rivets.  This is defiantly a two person job because there are a large number of rivets on the bottom which will need to be set.  You may be able to back rivet, but it's not perfectly flat so you might run into issues with that.  In the end you now have a new improved fuselage....